I often wondered why Sally treated Adam so badly. She’d never really had a boyfriend before. She always said she wasn’t interested, and I sort of understood that. I was going through my own journey of discovery as far as relationships went. I had a couple of boyfriends and experimented in the usual way – you know, going to second base was fun, but I always held back from anything more. And I sort of liked what they did to me more than when I had to do it to them – that freaked me out a bit.
But Sally preferred just hanging out with a group. We would go bowling or ice skating at the Dome. We had some great nights out together. There were about a dozen of us all told and Sally just enjoyed being with the gang.
In those days Sally and I talked a lot. We used to have sleepovers that didn’t involve a lot of sleep. Not that anything ever happened between Sally and me, I respected her too much and would never jeopardise our friendship. Not to say I didn’t think about it some times, though. No we just talked and talked all night. She had some wild dreams about how she was going to end up really rich and we laughed about what we would spend her money on. She was always really generous like that, it was always how we would spend the money.
It was quite a shock when she told me. I’d never suspected a thing. I knew her mum had a bit of a drink problem- nothing major but she could sink a few when she put her mind to it. I think that’s why Sally’s never been one to drink much – she doesn’t want to end up like her mum. It’s never been bad enough for her mum to lose her job or anything but there’ve been a few close calls. Sally has had to call work on several occasions to say her mum was sick after a particularly bad night, and I think her mum has been warned a couple of times.
It’s probably the drink that caused her mum to have a few dubious relationships. I always wondered about Robbie. I saw Sally’s mum with a few scratches and bruises and wouldn’t have been surprised to hear he was knocking her about a bit. But when I asked Sally, she said her mum could handle him and she didn’t put up with him for long.
But I didn’t ever worry about Aidan, and I should have done. I really should have known something was wrong.